петък, 28 февруари 2014 г.

сряда, 26 февруари 2014 г.

GLOBAL excursion (Extended Curriculum for Science Infrastructure
Online) is a support action funded by the European Commission under the
Seventh Framework Programme -FP7 and attributed to DG Connect – Excellence in Science – Digital Science.
GLOBAL excursion is a new way to science education.
In this project we will introduce e-Infrastructures to educators and
their pupils between 14-18 years of age (upper stage school). The
driving themes currently are Nano- and bio-technologies, as well as
volunteer computing and life sciences with an interdisciplinary focus
especially including ethical, legal and social aspects (ELSA).
The aims of GLOBAL excursion are basically twofold: on the one hand
we envision to enrich science teaching in European schools and on the
other hand we offer researchers and their institutions a promotion
channel towards a school audience. Via a central web portal, called the
Virtual Science Hub – “ViSH”
we will provide scientists, teachers and their pupils as well as policy
makers a package of activities, materials, and tools for enabling the
integration of e-Infrastructures into school curricula.
The ViSH
is the main access point. It contains a selection of e-Infrastructures,
a social network where scientists and teachers will be able to exchange
and establish collaborations, and a virtual excursion room, where
pupils will be able to experience real e-science applications in areas
of high relevance for the future, such as Nano- and bio-technologies,
volunteer computing, and life sciences.
The main purpose of the ViSH
is to enable students and teachers access to the experimental
laboratories and resources of selected e-Infrastructures in order to improve science curricula by
enriching school’s existing teaching and learning materials. By
connecting e-Infrastructures, resources and tools with schools, pupils
can experience challenging and authentic learning scenarios. Thus,
students gain insights in scientific real work and relive interest in
natural science education.
During its first year the project has been concentrating on developing and implementing a first version of the ViSH
in a truly participatory way. Teachers, as one of the main user groups,
have been involved from the very beginning to co-design together with
scientists and developers a service that meets their specific
pedagogical requirements, that adapts to their personal teaching styles
and that fits their specific teaching curricula.This is my excursion: "Explorations of solar activity and sunspots"

сряда, 19 февруари 2014 г.

This course has been created by European Schoolnet, a network of 30 Ministries of Education around Europe, with the support of the inGenious
project. This course starts on 17 March 2014!
inGenious is the European Coordinating Body in Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education aiming to
reinforce young people’s interest in science education and careers. If
you are interested to know more please check the respective websites.How can a teacher access online
remote and virtual laboratories in order to perform experiments in the
classroom?, What are the tricks and tips to organise a successful
virtual visit to a research centre for your class?, How can we deal with
stereotypes in science?- Those are some of the key questions we will be addressing in this course.
Have you already find a colleague to discuss the course topics?
Make sure to revisit the map we’ve created for the course once in a
while to see if there are any people taking the course that are close
by. If you still haven’t added your location in the map ( https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=833311 ),
we suggest you to do it before the course starts (you’ll find
instructions on how to do it in the map itself). You can also start
meeting via Twitter using #stemcourse or via our Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/inGeniousScience )!
This course is open to anybody interested in STEM subjects, however, it
is mainly addressed to science, engineering, technology and math
teachers, career advisers and school counselors.

The “Innovative Practices for Engaging STEM teaching”
course aims to provide teachers, school counsellors and career advisers
with resources and ideas to increase pupils’ interest for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
subjects and careers. The course is designed in response to the
worrying disengagement of young people from STEM subjects in school, and
their decreasing interest in related careers.
The course is structured into 8 modules which develop a learning path
from the analysis of the reasons behind pupils’ disaffection for STEM to
the development and experimentations with innovative practices to
overcome it.
The first 5 modules focus on motivating and engaging students in the
STEM area through different approaches such as taking part in virtual
visits to research centres and the use of virtual and remote labs and
other innovative tools in the classroom. The last 3 modules explore
career counselling aspects, providing guidance on how to inform pupils
on STEM careers prospects and to support them in their choice.
The “Innovative Practices for Engaging STEM teaching” course will last 8
weeks and will be animated by a European Schoolnet panel of experts who
will contribute to it with their specific expertise and will engage
participants through collaborative activities.
At the end of the course you will receive an electronic certificate of participation.Course Modules:Module 1Increasing students’ engagement to study STEM:
we address the reasons behind students’ demotivation regarding STEM
subjects at school, and explore how to reverse the situation.Module 2Original teaching practices in the STEM classroom: we explore some innovative teaching practices and the opportunities and challenges they offer.Module 3Innovative STEM teaching - using STEM resources from across Europe:
we focus on providing guidance on accessing teaching resources from
educational STEM projects and how to effectively exchange resources with
fellow STEM educators.Module 4Discovering virtual and remote labs and how to use them in the classroom: we present virtual and remote labs as innovative teaching tools for the STEM classroom.Module 5Exploring STEM in the real world - virtual visits to research centres: we explore some STEM passionate topics, areas and technologies currently used through virtual visits to research centres.Module 6Helping students to understand what STEM jobs are - career counselling: we give guidance to inform students about the STEM job market - its needs and possibilities.Module 7Meeting real life STEM professionals:
we address the importance and impact on students of meeting real life
STEM professionals, the existing programs and how schools can get
involved in to set their own meetings.Module 8 Dealing with stereotypes: we uncover the reality behind the gender issue related to STEM careers and jobs.